Taylors Wines toasts solution to business data crush

The need to bring together business data from several different states and multiple teams set Taylors Wines on a path to become the first Australian winery to implement an internationally-renowned business intelligence and corporate performance management solution, BOARD.

A family-owned winery from the Clare Valley, Taylors has a history of embracing and investing in innovation; being one of the first wineries in Australia to enable its sales force with ipads, launching the world’s first 100% carbon neutral wine range compliant to the international standard (ISO14044), releasing the world’s first bottle-fermented sparkling under screwcap and becoming the first major Australian winery to put all its wines under the closure.

Turning data into insights has become a huge challenge for many businesses, with research showing that most managers spend more than a third of their working week gathering and analysing data*. In fact, 90 per cent of the world’s data has been generated just in the past two years**.

BOARD enables Taylors, which has its winery and roots in South Australia and offices around Australia, to achieve a shared vision of performance across the entire organisation. Data currently residing in various separate systems, including its; vineyard, e-commerce, ERP system (SAP), production, sales CRM (sales@work) and marketing systems, will be streamed into a central data warehouse and brought to life using BOARD’s advanced analytic and visualisation capabilities.

Managing Director of Taylors Wines Mitchell Taylor says the system will play a huge role in the company’s long term success.

“Being a winery, we have many sources of data which can be both the lifeblood and scourge of our business. BOARD is an investment in our future and offers our family winery an effective solution for the large amounts of data we have. Not only will we be able to manage this better, we expect to see real business results with its implementation,” Mitchell said.

Director of Operations at BOARD Australia Steven Kellar says BOARD allows users to spend time analysing data rather than spending time gathering it.

“Manual processes are labour intensive and result in too many inconsistencies. With data volumes doubling every two years, organisations need to ensure they remain up-to-date and seize any opportunity to gain deeper insights into their performance,” he said.

“Big data is a challenge, however more importantly it is also an opportunity to uncover insights, increase the agility of your business, and answer questions that previously were beyond reach.”

BOARD will be used to monitor and analyse Taylors data and deliver a more integrated, effective and intuitive approach to reporting. Data that was previously not visible will be able to be visually analysed and investigated. Additionally, crucial for the mobile sales, vineyards and production team, BOARD will allow users to explore data using user defined, real-time reporting while on the go.

Beyond data visualisation and reporting, BOARD can also be used to streamline the budgeting and forecasting process, creating real business benefits. With consistent budget and forecast processes in place alongside clear market trend data, Taylors will enjoy better planning and inventory reductions.

After four decades in the Clare Valley, Taylors Wines remains proudly family-owned and run. The vision to build Australia’s most successful family owned wine company was set by Bill Taylor who, in 1969, purchased land with his brother John and father Bill Taylor senior by the Wakefield River in Auburn. This vision has been nurtured and expanded by the next generation, Mitchell, Justin and Clinton Taylor, who all have key roles in the organisation. Taylors challenges world standards through its progressive practices, most evident in the family’s commitment to bottling all wines from the 2004 vintage under screw cap, the first major Australian wine company to do so. Taylors ability to meld tradition and innovation results in regular recognition, both in Australia and on the highly competitive world stage. In September 2009, Taylors Eighty Acres range became the world's first 100% carbon neutral wine range in accordance with the international standard for lifecycle assessment ISO14044.

BOARD International is a leading global provider of software for improving business results through better decision making. By unifying Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management in a single product, the BOARD Management Intelligence solution enables companies to achieve a shared vision of their performance across the entire organisation, and thus a single version of the truth. Since 1994, BOARD has helped over 2,500 organisations improve their business performance by making better decisions. BOARD has a worldwide reseller network with local partners across the globe.